The Human Factor
by Pekenota14
Summary: What is it the one thing that strikes the nerve of Tony, Steve, Clint, Natasha and Bruce? What does make them humans? What is it that one thing that makes them collapse? One-shot.


_Attentions; noun:_ things done to express interest in or please someone. Acts of courtesy, consideration, or gallantry, especially by a suitor.

Tony Stark is a man who constantly needs to be reminded that he is loved. And then Pepper (unknowingly) showed him what love is. What it really feels like. And so she's the most important person in his life; she's everything he has and the only person he can't bear losing.

He's not selfish (anymore); he just wants to feel pleased, but don't we all? The only thing Tony wants (even if he never really said it or realized it) is that he is a changed man. His father's legacy is nothing more than just legacy. He wants to prove the ones who keep judging him that he's a separate human being from what his father was, even though he's still his blood and has his name.

But he's only human and sometimes people don't realize that. He now flashes a peace sign because of that young soldier that wanted to take a photo with him; that poor kid who didn't get to live. He's somehow grateful to a bomb, _the_ bomb from his own company, blowing up and putting a hole in his chest. He thanks his life to Yinsen; he didn't get to live either.

Apparently only he was alive, or at least awoke up for a new life. After reckless decisions he found his path in life. He adjusted the circumstances that fate threw at him and played with them. He realized what he must do.

Tony seeks for people's approval. He _needs_ the attentions. He needs the eyes of people, their cheering, their caring. That's why he likes the spotlight, the fame, the fortune, having his name plastered on a big building. He likes to see his face on the magazine covers, he likes that people know his name.

All that Tony needs is to feel loved.

* * *

_Care; verb: _feel concern or interest; attach importance to something.

Clint Barton has a heart that only pounds for a cause. Keeping her safe. And even though he knows she's more than capable to defend herself, he doesn't want his eyes to close before hers.

Underneath all that she shows to be, she's frail, vulnerable and broken. The thing only she needs is somebody who cares, but he doesn't push her or try to protect her all the time. If so, he'd keep her in a bell-jar. He knows when she needs him, she can look for him, and he's there, waiting for her.

He wants to be next to her just for the sake of _being there_. She never trusted anyone, neither did he. No-one seemed to understand. And who better to understand a broken person that one that's broken himself?

May you never be the person who causes any kind of pain to her. And may you never be the person who's responsible for her death. Otherwise, Clint will put you through so much pain that will make the agony of having the limbs being torn off in cold blood the most pleasant of the deaths.

He cares deeply. Sometimes too much. And she yells at him, sometimes. She doesn't want him jeopardizing his life for her or doing stupid things to avenge her. But she only yells at him because she cares too. And that's why she's worth his care and trust; because it's mutual. They tell each other things in their intimacy that for other people would seem foreign words dripping from their mouth; they'd seem unreal. But that's why nobody else's know; it's something that only belongs to the two of them.

* * *

_Death; noun: _the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism.

Death is not something that scares Steve. He won over death and slept for nearly 70 years, frozen in ice. His death doesn't scare him, other people's deaths does. The heart doesn't hold up and grips when he watches someone dying before him. Watching them drawing their last breath, gazing their last gleam of light and then succumb. It hurts even more when people die and there's nobody there to hold their hand or sooth their pain.

All lives end and all hearts are broken. His heart is already broken, so he is only supposed to wait for his live to end? No, of course not, he wouldn't accept that so lightly. And so he _fights_, defending the helpless, the defeated and the lonely hearts. He stands for those without a voice and doesn't march to others' orders if they don't please him.

You don't bring death to his backyard and don't expect him to wage into a war. He may die, but at least he died bravely, trying to avenge the ones you've killed. He chooses to die with his own blood in his hands than having the blood of innocent dripping from his hands.

* * *

_Dread; verb_: To be in terror anticipate with alarm, distaste, or reluctance.

If anyone had the slightest hint of the torment and terror Dr. Bruce Banner lives constantly, they wouldn't be alive.

He understands why people tiptoe around him, to not incite a reaction in him, but it hurts him sometimes and annoys him too a bit. But even he tiptoes about his self. He never knows when _the_ _other guy_ is gonna burst and make his move. Even though he controls himself better with time, he doesn't know what can happen. A second he is himself, the other the monster has taken control of him. And then he doesn't remember half of what happened, waking up after collapsing, feeling his body sore and his mind weary.

He wants someone to love but he has already convinced himself he can't give himself that luxury. He wouldn't bear watching her pack her bags as he cries and begs for her not to leave out that door. Bruce doesn't believe to exist a woman in the world capable of putting up with _the other guy_.

* * *

_Nothing; pronoun:_ not anything; no single thing. One of no consequence, significance, or interest.

Natasha Romanoff fears nothing but the feeling of nothing.

She fears waking up and being surrounded by nothing, having no one near her. It only evokes her memories of the Red Room when there wasn't anything and anyone. When she was lonely. And never the feeling of loneliness bothered her before until she was assigned a partner. _Him_, the one who she literally owes her life to. The one (and only) person who knows how to handle her, how knows all of her secrets. The one person she can relay with all her heart and soul, because she knows he's never gonna give her up.

She's object of affection and interest and she loves it. _Loves_ it, yes.

Because nobody else cared before like he does. And that's what she fears. He gives some much to her that she'll never find anything equal. Neither does she wants different. She knows when he's gone she's going to be alone again. Everything will feel empty again and nothing else will matter much.

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